The Los Angeles Rams clinched back-to-back NFC West titles on Sunday, thanks to another amazing performance from all-world tailback Todd Gurley.
But that's not the crux of this particular story.
Rather, on the way to Gurley's supreme outing of 165 total yards (132 rushing) and two touchdowns versus Detroit, the UGA legend trolled the fantasy football community in hilarious fashion.
With the Rams nursing a seven-point lead and less than three minutes remaining on the clock, Gurley took the ball with gusto, blew through a narrow hole in the Lions defense and would seemingly cruise in for a 38-yard touchdown run.
Instead, Gurley—who stars in NFL.com commercials promoting fantasy, but doesn't necessarily care about the product—quickly put the kibosh on the Lions getting the ball back ... opting to run parallel with the goal line, before a horde of stunned Detroit defenders corralled him short of the end zone.
Here's the clip of Gurley's friendly dagger to the fantasy football community:
It was a crazy scene, indeed, but not without precedent:
Against the Packers last month, Gurley denied himself the chance for a certain touchdown by intentionally falling short of the end zone. By doing so, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers never garnered another chance to pull out a last-minute win for Green Bay.
Both unselfish plays are similar in tone, but there's a major difference between the pair:
**The Packers-Rams clash, while important in NFL circles, wasn't a monumental occurrence with most fantasy owners, since it only represented the two-thirds point of the season.
**For Rams-Lions, though, Week 13 is universally known as the final week of the fantasy regular season, leading into the playoff charge for Weeks 14-16.
For the middling fantasy owners ... Week 13 serves as a do-or-die experience.
Simply put, by converting a 38-yard touchdown run into a 36-yard scoreless jaunt, Gurley—perhaps without any knowledge of the consequences—single-handedly controlled the fate of thousands of fantasy matchups on Sunday.
But alas, this story has a happy ending.
Two plays later, after the Lions had lost the timeout leverage of the 2-minute warning, Gurley happily rolled for his second touchdown of the day.
